Top 10 dot-com flops

[Richard M]

http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-627...?tag=cnetfd.sd

Interesting reading, the amount of cash involved is astounding.

[MetaWraith]

Staggering when you think most of them had unproven or unworkable business models and were unlikely at best to succeed.

Hindsight is a wonderful tool, and with it we can see that far to many venture capitalists and investors were conned into believing the hype perpetuated. I wonder how many of those budding entrepeneurs, if any would get past BBC2's Dragon's Den.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/

Probably the easiest way (which a reasonable chance of success) to start a ".com" is to be a bricks & mortar company that branches out and offers an online purchasing route.

[danielf]

ah, the marvels of the business world...

A good thing to bear in mind when moaning about the amount of money wasted in public administration.

[Gareth]

Great article. Interestingly enough, Webvan holds the #1 spot. I'd heard of this site before it became famous for being a flop, as the CEO of Webvan, George Shaheen, used to be the CEO of Andersen Consulting. I never liked the guy when I was at Andersen, so I was pleased to see Webvan go Pete Tong spectacularly... although sadly Shaheen made a helluva lot of money out of it nonetheless (anyone else fancy being forgiven from paying back a $6.7 million loan? ).

After Shaheen drove Webvan into the ground, he's now at Siebel... who are struggling big-time since Thomas Siebel stepped-down, so I'd expect to see them feature in this list in a few years' time, once Shaheen has worked his 'magic' there too.

[Ramrod]

The dot.com bubble is just the latest in a long line of flops on the markets.......

South Sea Bubble (1711)
Tulip bubble (1630's)